They're Just Popping Out!!

Hey Guys!

So the flavour of my month was babies, babies, babies! I haven't really made the effort to make any handmade baby gifts until now. To be honest, I've only had a couple of friends have babies in the past few years, and they were born way back at the start of my sewing journey. But it seems babies are like buses, and now they're coming thick and fast!

I've been working far too slowly on this Lua sleep sack for quite a while. But the beneficiary made his debut in the wee hours of Saturday morning, so I got off my bum and finished it. To be honest it's not an especially time consuming project - I just kept questioning my choices of fabric and pattern size.

The boy put doubt in my mind about the fabric combination. I personally like it! The galaxy fabric is a Robert Kaufman called Stargazers Galaxy Royal. I picked it up at Frumble Fabrics thanks to some helpful Twitter suggestions (By the way, their postage is obscenely cheap and it arrived really fast). I really wanted something space related as the Dad is really into astronomy :) The lining I picked up in A1 fabrics on Goldhawk road but I've seen it elsewhere. I've seen it in some other colourways too. Thankfully that was a stashbust from the remnant left over from my sister's Tofino pajamas a couple of Christmases ago. Woohoo!

Thankfully it sways towards the boy spectrum but I know my friends would have been happy with it for a girl too. I was actually convinced they were going to have a girl so I was surprised with the announcement! I house-shared with the baby's Dad for two and a half years; and the baby's nursery is actually my old room!

I made a few changes to the pattern, firstly making it a bit smaller. It's a bit scary looking when you first cut it out! It looks ginormous for a 0-6m baby. I shortened it by a few inches and there was plenty in 1m of fabric. I also mistakenly sewed the armholes with a 1.5cm seam allowance instead of 1cm which I didn't think was too big of a deal. I also deepened this to 2cm on the inside neck, which I had always intended to, as I thought the straps looked very close to the babies faces in the samples.

Sewing on the buttons was interesting. I found these in my stash, and I thought they looked dreamy! The pattern has you stitch them on 3 separate times, with extended tails that are knotted excessively and sewn back into the sack. I don't think these buttons are going to become a choking hazard (fingers crossed!).

My invisible side zip went in so well, thanks to my new invisible zip foot! The boy treated me for my birthday - yes it was over £30 but it's definitely the best one I've ever used. Bernina is definitely £££! I found my zip to be quite stiff intermittently so I really hope it doesn't break!! Good colour match though!

I really hope they like the sack, and they get use out of it. At the moment I'm waiting for them to get home so I can have baby cuddles!! Walking the fine line of showing interest but not being too pushy!!

My other gift, you may have already have spotted! It was for Clare from Sew Dixie Lou, who is yet to pop ( I think?? It could be happening as I type!). I was having quite the panic about what to make for Clare, as so many other Spoolettes were going to be making goodies, and of course you don't want to make the same as someone else if you can help it! I had some good ideas but it was the execution and time limit that forced me to veto them.

Background story: I remembered that Clare had a denim jacket she wore to a Rock Festival in Canada that she had decorated with patches. And of course a denim jacket is one half of a Canadian Tuxedo. And seen as the baby will be half Canadian..... Well you catch my drift.

So here's what I came up with: (photo's borrowed from Clare!)

The jacket I bought (I did not have time for making a Denim Jacket!!). I picked up a TCB lightening bolt patch from the US to tie in with Clare's Jacket, to tie in with her love for Elvis and to tie in with a tattoo that Clare had spoken about in the past. On the inside of the back yoke, I sewed in the fabric that Clare used to make her Betty Bacteria dress at the John Lewis Sewing Bee last year - which was a special day we all shared together.

On the back:

I used a heavy chain stitch to embroider 'Spoolette' on the back yolk so that little Miss. Szabo would feel included from Day 1! I was really happy about the result but I wish I had had time to make the jacket too!

I can't wait to meet them both!!

Emmie

Where have I been? Quite a few places really...

Hey Guys,

I've really been a bit AWOL of late. Not even much sewing going on about these parts. As I mentioned before, November-December involves a lot of present sourcing and packing and celebrating. I did manage, however to do a decent but of socialising in the past few months!

I've been very lucky to have met such wonderful human beings through both sewing and this blog. I can't believe how much my life has changed in the last couple of years and it's all down to you guys!

I have a little low-down on what I've been up to - warning, there's a lot of pictures coming up. I'm hoping they don't go too bonkers in RSS. I forgot my blog doesn't like to show two photo's side by side!

Firstly, in November, I helped warm up Lisa Comfort's new Sew Over It shop in Islington, with some of my other favourite people. I adore the colour of the shop! And I really hope they didn't fix the number 6 on the door, I love the jaunty angle :)

What a haven to sew in! I was making a Christmas table runner for my Mother (which she loved, by the way). I clearly picked the machine in front of the cake on purpose...

I wasn't entirely happy with the end result of the binding, but I knew I couldn't face redoing it! I had already redone a couple of corners multiple times. I also borrowed a couple of photo's from Karen (she managed to get me in action through the window!). There may be a borrowing theme through this post.

Then of course there was Paris!! Which was definitely a major highlight.

I spent a few weeks every Summer in France from about the age of 11, but never in Paris, so it was definitely somewhere I was itching to get to. Lets forget the fact that I've lived here for 5 years now, and this was the first time I made the effort! Now I've been though, I now know the ease of travelling by Eurostar. I wish I could go everywhere by train from now on.

This was our first morning, where we got Paninni's from our local Boulangerie. They may have been salmon and cheese rather than ham and cheese. Who cares, they were tasty!

My Lemon coat made sure I was easy to spot in all places! (many pictures here borrowed from the Flickr group - most from Charlotte!)

Although the ever-awesome Carmen was pretty easy to spot too! She was an amazing tour guide, and had made us gorgeous totes, filled with lots of goodies she had sourced. And they all had our names embroidered on the corner and accessed us a 20% discount in one of the coupon shops.

"BON POUR MORAL" (Both Sewing and Rehanon!)

Tilly getting back into her Paris groove!

Me, examinging all the lovely treasures in Saijou (with a little bit of BRF going on there!)

A miniature scale of the shop

Clare and Tania in the full scale shop!

 

The ever-gracious Joost, who helped me with my bags after my overspend :)

About as close as I got to being a tourist :)

Carmen took us to Pink Flamingo by the Sacre Coeur, which had the most amazing and interesting Pizza's I ever had!

On day two we went to Anna Ka Bazaar (the lovely makers of Atelier Brunette fabrics) who kindly hosted us in her shop while we perused the pretties. I bought some gold and silver blingy bias binding. Who knows whats going to happen with that!

I also got to see the famous creepy mannequins.

And we definitely didn't lock Tilly in a storage locker. No Siree Bob

The Sunday after we got back from Paris, I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon giving Lauren a sewing send-off :) I'm so glad I got to spend so much time with all these girls. They just make me happy! Glad I got a shot of them all engrossed in their tasks :)

And Last but by no means least, the Sewists Christmas Party!! The most awesome evening, hosted by Elisalex of BHL.My only regret about that night was that I hadn't organised to take the following day off of work! Especially as my train was massively delayed and I didn't get home until after 2am, having left the party at 11.30pm!

Spirits were so high, it was just such an amazing evening, I can't even describe how uplifting it is to spend time with these people. And I finally got to meet some elusive people like Melissa Fehr and Ralph Pink!

And here is my beautiful 40's handbag, lovingly made by Janene of Ooobop. It's so amazing and even has her label inside! Head over here to see more about it :)

And my gift was to Winnie of Scruffybadgertime, a Sewing machine pad and organiser. It has lots of little pockets for you to store your most used bits and pieces so they don't end up lost and strewn across the table (or is that just me?) I really didn't want to give this present up, and I'm so honored that it's in use. I was based off of a project in one of the Cath Kidston books that Lisa pointed out to me in November, but I made it up myself as I went along. 

Of course, I didn't take any measurements, write anything down or even take photo's, so I hope Winnie doesn't mind if I swipe a photo from her Instagram :) The fabric was a lovely home dec frabric from Dunelm Mill - I also used it to make my sister a memory board and a make-up bag. Both of which she needs to photograph for me, as I also forgot to photograph those. 

God I really signed off being a blogger these last few months, eh?

Anyway, I'll get back to you at the weekend with my 2015 plans, I just really needed to get this out of the way - and get my fingers back into this blog!

LYLT,

Emmie x